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How To Get Tickets To / Sports Travel / Preakness / Maryland Travel / Horse Racing / → All Tags

How to Get Tickets to the Preakness

Now that the Kentucky Derby is in the rearview mirror and the mint juleps have worn off it’s time to look forward to the Preakness Stakes. We’re just shy of two weeks away from the ponies doing their thing in the second leg of the race for the Triple Crown, so now is as good time as any to start planning to check things out in person.

This year’s race is scheduled to do its thing at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on May 18, and if you want to see things in person rather than on television—you’re in luck—there’s still tickets available. There’s way more options from which to choose when compared to the Kentucky Derby, as you can even get access to the Preakness InfieldFest featuring performances by Pitbull and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

If you’re looking for a good time we’d probably recommend the $70 Infield Mug Club tickets, as it includes all you care to drink beer. Just be sure to watch the cash in your wallet, as we don’t want you to bet it all on the long shot.

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Super Bowl Travel / Parades / Baltimore Travel / Sports Travel / Super Bowl XLVII / Football Travel / → All Tags

All the Details for the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl Victory Parade

The Super Bowl is now over and in case you missed this year’s big game we’ll fill you in on what went down. The Baltimore Ravens won the first half of the game, then came Beyoncé, after that the lights went out, and then the San Francisco 49ers kind of won the second half.

It’s the final score that matters, so when it was all said and done the Ravens came out on top—final score 34 to 31. Now that the game is over—and since you’re not quite ready to start nursing that hangover—it’s time to join in on the victory parade.

Today is reserved for interviews and even more celebration, but the Baltimore Ravens are ready to hit the streets tomorrow—that’s Tuesday, February 5. The party is set to start doing its thing at 11am outside of City Hall, and then things will make their way through the city before ending at the team’s stadium. To us it sounds like the exact route is still being somewhat finalized as of Monday morning, but if you make your way to Baltimore we are fairly confident that you’ll be able to check out some of the action.

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Train Travel / Train Stations That Still Got It / Baltimore Travel / Amtrak / Architecture Travel / → All Tags

Train Stations That Still Got it: Baltimore, Maryland's Pennsylvania Station

Like usual, most good things come from New York. We kid, we kid...but really the beautiful Beaux Arts Pannsylvania Station in Baltimore was actually designed by a New York architect, Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison. The impressive building—with its clock-fronted facade and impressive interior stained glass skylights—was opened in 1911 and miraculously still serves quite a slew of regular Amtrak trains; trust Wikipedia to have a list of them.

Though we could have easily popped down to Baltimore on a train from NYC, we instead chose a BoltBus one time, which actually also arrived just a block or two away from the station, proving Penn Station's continued dominance as a hub of transportation on the east coast.

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Airport News / BWI / Airports / → All Tags

$100 Million in Upgrades Coming to BWI

Your next trip through or to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport might just be a little more enjoyable, as airport officials are headed to the ATM to withdraw some cash for a major airport upgrade. In total, the plan is to spend like $100 million on renovations and updates, as the airport continues to gain passengers each and every month.

With all the travelers passing through the airport there’s a need to get bigger and better before it’s too late. Expansions will take place over the next 18 months—at least that’s the plan. New stuff includes moveable walkways connecting Concourse B and Concourse C, so you’ll never have to hustle off to your gate again. There’ll be more bathrooms, better gate areas, and they’re promising around 8,500 square feet of new shops and restaurants.

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Sports Travel / BWI / Airport News / Airports / Events / Running / → All Tags

Lace Up Your Sneakers For Another Airport Run This September

At this point you should already be training for the 2012 edition of the JFK Runway Run, but if you need some motivation in between there’s always the option to head down to Baltimore.

Sure you might need to pound the pavement a little more this week or crank up the treadmill, but it’s all worth it for a chance to run loose at another airport. This time, the people act like airplanes at Baltimore/Washington International Airport on September 25. That’s plenty of warning to adhere to that running and exercise regimen that you promised yourself that you’d stick to back in like January.

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Movie Set Travel / Celeb Travel / Justin Timberlake / Gossip Girl / Jesse Eisenberg / → All Tags

How To Be A Part Of Facebook's Biopic In Baltimore

Good morning, Baltimore! Here's something you'll want to update your status about, post on people's walls and create albums for -- the Facebook movie's coming to town! And whoever manages to appear in it will win a special prize from Mark Zuckerberg of potentially knowing that you exist.

"The Social Network" is already the most anticipated movie of 2010 for film geeks as well as people who spend too much time on their computers, thanks to the participation of "The West Wing"'s Aaron Sorkin, who signed on to write the script, and "Zodiac" and "Fight Club" director David Fincher. (I am Jack's nerdy roommate having a walk-and-talk with investors?)

Zuckerberg famously dropped out of Harvard to bring his baby to life, but shooting in Cambridge can get expensive -- that's if you even get the thumbs-up from the top brass, so it's off to Baltimore and the Johns Hopkins University. Students on campus found out this week that the crew will arrive on Sunday and be shooting Monday and Tuesday.

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Literary Travel / Edgar Allan Poe / Halloween Travel / Tourism Board Travel / → All Tags

Attend Poe's Funeral In Baltimore, If You Dare

Before "The Wire," Edgar Allan Poe held a monopoly on mapping the scary streets of Baltimore. Now Charm City is repaying the favor by holding a morbid bicentennial only a true Poe fan could love.

The writer will be lying in state at the Poe House and Museum (203 Amity St.) on October 7 from noon to 11PM for admirers to come pay their last respects. Show off your recitatory chops at a candlelit vigil on October 8 at midnight at the Westminster Graveyard (519 West Fayette St.), then don your dress blacks for the October 11 funeral procession from Amity House to Westminster. Creepy!

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Maryland Travel / Fall Festivals / Fall Culture Travel / → All Tags

Maryland Ren Faire Welcomes Jousting and Meat on a Stick

Hear ye, hear ye! Time to break out your floral headdress and blouson-sleeved coats, Jaunted readers; 'tis the season for Ren Faire. For a 33rd season, Crownsville, Maryland celebrates everything from jousting to archery at their annual Renaissance Festival. The merry event will be held every weekend, rain or shine, through October 25th, with a full scroll of activities that will take Renaissance enthusiasts back to a time when knights ruled the roost.

Before you don an epic costume and get your Robin Hood on, the official website reminds patrons that no costume or real weapons are allowed by guests. 'Tis a family-friendly event, after all. At the gate, an adult ticket will run you 18 ducats—er, dollars*—while a two-day pass can be purchased for $28. Wee lads and lasses the age of six and under are admitted for free. You also have the option of purchasing a cleverly-titled "Fairever Pass," which is good for the entire festival, will include your photograph, and grants you access to a private entrance to Revel Grove, where the event is being held.

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Television Travel / Mad Men / Baltimore Travel / → All Tags

Mad Men Takes A Sidetrip to Baltimore

As anyone who has walked by a New York City bus shelter in the last few days certainly knows, Mad Men returns to AMC for a third season on August 16. But while the omnipresent poster campaign ominously shows Don Draper drowning in his own office, producers have been extremely tightlipped about what’s going down on the show this season.

We did get this one travel-y tidbit from Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, who tells us that in the season opener, Draper will actually leave New York to spend some time in Baltimore.

Draper jolts down to B-More to visit his clients at the London Fog factory, reportedly spending the night at the Hotel Belvedere—you can check out this historic Beaux Arts building, although it’s been converted to condos—and of course grabbing dinner at the legendary Haussner’s Restaurant—another one that’s sadly, recently gone—although the space is currently for sale. Any fans want to snatch it up and open a Mad Men-themed restaurant? We'd be more than happy to have a highball there.

Related Stories:
· AMC's Mad Men: Don Draper is coming to Baltimore [Baltimore Sun]
· Make It an Old-Fashioned, Neat: Boston Bar Hosting 'Mad Men' Premiere Party [Jaunted]
· He's Just Not That Into Baltimore [Jaunted]

[Photo: AMC]

Dunkin' Donuts Alternatives / Donuts / Food Travel / Maryland Travel / → All Tags

Maryland's Candy-Coated Donuts Storm the Nation

Of all the crazy new donut shops we’ve covered in our Dunkin' Donuts Alternatives series, the one that seems most poised to knock DD and KK from their thrones is Maryland’s ultra-inventive Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe.

The kooky bakery started in the equally kooky beach town of Ocean City, Maryland, where there famous “O.C. Sand” donut—a flour cake topped with honey glaze and cinnamon sugar—got the craze going. But that’s probably their most basic donut—from there it only gets crazier. Try a Morning Buzz (mocha donut topped with Oreo crumble), a Peppermint Patty (mint frosted with mint chips), or a Trail Mix (loaded with banana, nuts, coconut, and jimmies/sprinkles).

Fractured Prune’s candy concoctions certainly appear to be catching on, as the chain has since expanded all across DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, and even has a few outposts as far afield as Ohio and Mississippi. Watch out, Dunkin!

Related Stories:
· The Fractured Prune [Official Site]
· Portland Has America's Craziest Doughnuts [Jaunted]
· Michigan Bakery Combines Donuts and Candy, Creates Cravings [Jaunted]

Music Festivals / Music Travel / Virgin Mobile FreeFest / Recessionomics / Richard Branson / → All Tags

Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free

There’s been a lot of talk about 2009 being the year the music festival died, (see Summercase, Langerado and the San Francisco Blues Festival), and the long-rumored next casualty has been the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Despite being a hit in its first three years out, concert organizers have waited forever to announce any details on dates or lineup, leading many around the music blogosphere to assume the fest wouldn’t be able to pull it together this year.

Well our old billionaire buddy Richard Branson must have taken those nasty rumors personally, because Virgin has announced that not only will the show go on, but they don’t need to make any stinkin' money on it anyway. That’s right, this year’s concert is 100-percent free.

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Bus Travel / Baltimore / Megabus / Boltbus / → All Tags

Boltbus to Baltimore For a Buck: A Success Story

Any day is a beautiful day when one can get from New York City to Baltimore for less than the cost of a can of soda. And indeed it was perfect sunny weather in the Charm City when on Saturday, we took our own advice and headed down the interstate for the weekend.

After boarding the nearly-full bus at West 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, next to a Sbarro's where tourists were, for some reason, eating breakfast, we settled into the bus' leather seats. Immediately we hooked onto the WiFi signal before the bus had even left, and we enjoyed a stable connection all the way down to Baltimore.

In our frenzy to get online however, we made the mistake of opting for an emergency exit row seat with perhaps an inch more legroom (laptop screen space). Why was this such a bad call on our part? Because the middle few rows on Boltbus do not have power outlets, unlike the other rows with their standard-size double plugs. Rest assured that we would not make this mistake again on the return trip.

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